I have seen mentorship programs for new hires at big corporations to help with on-boarding. I have also seen mentorship programs for diversity groups (like women, African-American, LGBT). In my experience, these have been somewhat forced and managed by employee networks. However, I do think they have worked by doing a good job making connections that would otherwise not have happened.

My company developed an interesting mentoring program helping young people to develop various skills based on their needs. Supporting people in handling with the daily challenges, setting up beneficial relationships will help to provide with a positive experience and develop expectations for the future.

I am leading mentoring program in my company. I see it is receiving more and more attentions and involvement in all levels. One key of successful mentoring program is to clearly know the purpose. The execution and process could be very different with the purpose of developing Hi-Po vs. providing fully covered benefits. The fundamental is same though - self-willing, open and sincere.

My company uses mentors 100% with every intern we bring in. Each is assigned a mentor for the project they are working on, they are expected to work closely together, and they have already been vetted in the interview process to be compatible. Basically we identify a mentor for each new hire/intern before they are hired, and we know they can work together and share interest in the project at hand.

A great mentorship programe for young girls is Technovation chanllenge. Every year, Technovation invites teams of girls from all over the world to learn and apply the skills needed to solve real-world problems through technology. Thechnovation is a group of entrepreneurs, mentors, and educators looking to teach girls everywhere the skills they need to change the world with technology.
Technovation has a profound impact on students and mentors.
A five year look-back survey of alumni showed that while most students had little or no experience with computer science before Technovation, their experience with Technovation had a powerful effect. After participating in Technovation, participants were more interested in:

• Computer Science (78%)
• Entrepreneurship (70%)
• Business Leadership (67%)

Additionally, after participating in Technovation:

• 26% of alumnae in college major in CS. This is 65x the national rate of 0.4% of first-year female college students majoring in CS.
• 58% of alumnae enroll in subsequent Computer Science courses.

Impact on Mentors

One of the first women to graduate from YCombinator was inspired to apply because of her experience as a mentor with Technovation. As it turns out, Technovation helps professional women in some surprising ways.
After volunteering with Technovation1:

• 58% of mentors increased their technical skills
• 67% of mentors increased their knowledge about entrepreneurship
• 70% of mentors learned to be effective mentors

Originally a dating app, Bumble is now exploring a mentorship service via "Bumble Bizz":

http://thebeehive.bumble.com/bumble-bizz/

Some organizations have started to connect candidates/applicants to internal mentors to help them through the process. Establishing a relationship before they start working there

What are your opinions of an entrepreneur-in-residence program? I have examined a few of them and sense that they are misdirected or fail to achieve their stated goals. What would make a more useful EIR program?